Daily Archives: September 3, 2019

I went to the Aug. 20 meeting at NOAA regarding the lobster trap lines and the entanglement of the right whales.,, Larry Stepenuck brought up the problem of the mussel farms and their spat lines – another potential cause of whale entanglements. What! Is nobody hearing him? I think lobsterman Mike Goodwin also brought up a good point,,, It’s a gold mine out there. The big oil rigs with their seismic testing, wind farms, fish farms, mining of the ocean floor, etc., want a piece of the action, and those pesky lobstermen are raining on their parade. by Sue Waller, >click to read< 20:43

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Some of the first images of the northern Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian has passed are coming in showing whole neighborhoods and even streets destroyed. First as a Category 5 storm and eventually a Category 3, Hurricane Dorian left catastrophic damage and people stranded in flooded areas on Abaco and the Grand Bahama islands. About 73,000 people live on those islands. Video, >click to read< 18:41

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The supply of dense Antarctic water from the bottom of the ocean to the Atlantic has declined in recent years. However, a new study explains for the first time how since 2014 this has stabilized and slightly recovered due to the variability in upstream dense waters, with implications for the global climate.,,, Lead author Dr. Povl Abrahamsen, oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey, says: “The deep oceans have been warming across much of the world for decades, so we were surprised to suddenly see this trend reversing,,, >click to read< 15:40

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In Maine, hardly any restaurants serve whale. For good reasons. Whales are endangered, so any chef who offers the giant mammals as the fresh catch of the day is guaranteed to incite protests, vandalism and the sort of caustic online reaction usually reserved for racist remarks from the president. Also, I have it on good authority that whale meat is very gamey. At best, it’s an acquired taste. On the other hand, right whales weigh as much as 70 tons, which means just one could supply the average sushi bar with the makings of enough gunkan maki for every hipster in Maine.,,, But the real villain isn’t Herman Melville. According to prominent environmental groups, it’s the lobster. by Al Diamon >Click to read< 12:16

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1100 AM EDT (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Dorian was located near latitude 27.1 North, longitude 78.6 West. Dorian is moving toward the northwest near 2 mph (4 km/h), and a slightly faster motion toward the northwest or north-northwest is expected later today and tonight. A turn toward the north is forecast by Wednesday evening, followed by a turn toward the north-northeast Thursday morning. On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will gradually move north of Grand Bahama Island through this evening. The hurricane will then move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late today through Wednesday evening, very near the Georgia and South Carolina coasts Wednesday night and Thursday, and near or over the North Carolina coast late Thursday and Thursday night. >click to read< 11:23

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Rescuers continued searching overnight off the coast of Santa Cruz Island for passengers who were trapped aboard the Conception when the dive boat caught fire and sank early Monday. At least 15 people were confirmed dead, and others were still missing early Tuesday,,, Additional bodies were recovered from the wreckage overnight, but updated numbers were not available early Tuesday, said Amber Anderson, a spokesperson for the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. >click to read< 10:54

The 75-foot dive boat Conception was considered one of the best of its kind in the region, and both it and its operator, Truth Aquatics Inc., were in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations.,, The cause has yet to be determined, but regardless of what sparked and fueled the fire, this much is clear: Once it started, it was too late for most of those on board to safely escape. >click to read<

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It’s a business like any other — and unlike any other — and for those who fish the Oregon coast, it’s all about pride in doing it right, from sea to shore.,, According to the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), an estimated 1,310 commercial fishers landed more than 300 million pounds of seafood in 2017, a dockside value of approximately $148 million.,, It’s a multigenerational livelihood steeped in tradition, with many fishing at an early age as part of a family business.,, Captain Robert Anthony, owner of the Liberty II and the Luna Sea Fish House market and restaurant in Yachats, began fishing in his twenties. >click to read< 09:10

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Fishermen off the U.S. east coast have confronted tight restrictions on fishing gear and vessel pace restrictions to make sure their actions don’t hurt marine mammals, together with the endangered North Atlantic proper whale. However in Canada, it was solely after proper whales started turning up lifeless in giant numbers in 2017, lots of them tangled in fishing gear and struck by vessels, that authorities introduced in emergency measures, and by then it was too late to keep away from a file variety of deaths.,,, (Sean) Brillant stated the USA legislated in 2016 >click to read< to forestall the entry into the nation of seafood that doesn’t meet strict requirements across the incidental killing of different species, together with whales. >click to read< 07:47

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

The Coast Guard, Massachusetts’ Department of Environmental Protection, the New Bedford Harbor Development Council and the Fairhaven Harbormaster agreed that 95 percent of the oil pollution Read More »